About AirportWatch – Our Aims and Objectives

Who we are

We are an umbrella movement networking the interested environmental organisations, airport community groups, and individuals opposed to unsustainable aviation expansion, and its damaging environmental effects, including climate change, noise and air pollution.

AirportWatch aims to oppose any expansion of aviation and airports likely to damage the human or natural environment, and to promote an aviation policy for the UK which is in full accordance with the principles of sustainable development. It promotes news and information through its website, Facebook and Twitter.

AirportWatch – campaigning for a sustainable and equitable aviation policy

AirportWatch is an umbrella organisation, formed in 2000. It campaigns for a
demand management approach to aviation, keeping aviation emissions within UK national targets. Demand for air travel could be dampened down by government removing the considerable tax breaks the aviation industry receives, through not paying VAT or fuel duty.

AirportWatch believes that government policies to expand aviation can and should
be resisted. Already ministers and the aviation industry have been surprised by the strength – and unity – of the opposition. The aviation industry had friends in high places, and the power and influence to lobby strongly for their cause. However, the self interest of the aviation industry is not the same as the interest of the wider society. The frequent claims that the industry makes that it is invaluable to the economy, and akin to motherhood and apple pie, need to be challenged.

Opposing unsustainable aviation expansion is, however, a long and difficult battle. We are building up strength and support from a broader range of individuals and organisations concerned not just with the environment, but with social justice and quality of life.

The AirportWatch network includes the Aviation Environment Federation, and (when they are working on aviation issues) Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, WWF UK, the Campaign for Better Transport [formerly Transport 2000], the Woodland Trust, and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Campaign Against Climate Change, Biofuelwatch – and many more.

AirportWatch also works closely with the many community groups working to protect local residents from the effects of expansion at airports across the country, and has established links with similar bodies in Europe.

Short Briefings:

One page briefing on the key issues of UK aviation expansion, covering the main points about connectivity, economics, noise and climate change see Key Facts (June 2012)

and

AirportWatch Briefing on the key facts about airport expansion

This short briefing provides atimely reminder of the key facts about airport expansion. Intense lobbying from the aviation industry resulted in the removal of Justine Greening as Transport Secretary and the inclusion of Heathrow as an option for expansion in the future. The Government has set up the Davies Commission to look at the UK’s capacity. It is not clear what additional capacity, if any, will be required because of the uncertainty about future levels of demand. The recent lobbying from the aviation industry produced little hard evidence. Greening dismissed it as a ‘pub-style’ debate. This briefing aims to separate substance from spin.